Some students understand the lesson and still can't start the homework. Others finish every problem and couldn't tell you whether a single answer makes sense.
We work on their actual assignments. I watch how they go at one, then we practice the parts they skip: reading the question, making a plan, and checking the answer against what was asked.
A Question Before the Calculation
A class needs 24 notebooks. They come in packs of six, and each pack costs $9. How much will the notebooks cost?
Plenty of students multiply 24 by 9 and write $216. So before any math, I ask: what are we buying, notebooks or packs? Once they see it's four packs, the cost is four times $9, or $36.
Then we check it. Would $4 make sense as the total? Would $216? A student who can say why neither one works has understood the problem.
The same habit works outside math. In an essay, it's knowing the difference between a topic and an argument. In reading, it's separating what the text says from what the student guessed.
Breaking Down Big Assignments
We use the assignments the student already has. A report due in two weeks becomes a short list: pick a question, find two sources, take notes on one, draft one section.
We turn "work on the project" into a step like "find one source by Thursday." The student decides what's realistic, and the next week we find out whether it was.
We also practice asking for help in a way a teacher can answer: here's what I tried, and here's the step where I got lost.
Evaluating Ideas and Evidence
In practice, critical thinking is asking how someone knows. We compare two explanations of the same thing, or find the assumption an argument depends on, using whatever the student is reading for class.
If a student looks again and changes an answer, I count that as part of getting it right.
Using the Skills Again
I teach a few strategies at a time and keep coming back to them. Some won't fit a particular student, and we drop those.
What I'm watching for is the student starting without me, and catching their own wrong answer before I do. When the trouble turns out to be a missing concept, we teach the concept too.
Common Questions
Related program: Academic Tutoring